Cameliers Guesthouse, Geraldton’s longest serving low cost supported accommodation service will be forced to close its doors on the 30th August due to increased operational costs and revenue challenges that mean we can no longer provide the level of staffing that we need to provide a safe, secure and compliant service to residents and staff.

Fusion senior staff have spent many hours over the past few months meeting with politicians, council, key agencies and other stakeholders to try and secure the resources necessary to continue, but we are very sad to have come to this decision to close Cameliers Guesthouse after no long term sustainable solutions have been reached.

Fusion has been operating Cameliers Guesthouse since 1984, and since the day we began have relied on volunteers, the generosity of the community and partnerships with other local agencies to provide a level of support to the residents and clients that call Cameliers home. For the 34 years of operation of Cameliers Guesthouse all of our senior management staff have operated at part paid and part volunteer capacity and this has continued right up until today. In more recent years it has been increasingly difficult to secure the staff that we need and with ever increasing competition for shrinking government funding and more agencies in town the level of cooperation and support has dwindled.

Increasing compliance regulations, changes to Fairwork Australia rules and increasing costs of wages, power and water have led to ever growing operational cost and requirements. At the same time our client group have not seen any significant increases in their income, leaving us without a capacity to increase our revenue. Neither have we been able to secure government funding beyond the small amount of funding we receive to provide a minimal number of crisis beds. All of these things have contributed to us reaching the point where it is no longer financially or morally right for us to continue to operate Cameliers.

Fusion will continue to provide a cutting edge mental health accommodation service in Geraldton and will look for other opportunities to develop our support those in need in our community. Over our 34 years in Geraldton, Fusion has built a positive reputation and a broad network of other agencies, caring groups and individuals and we will continue to work with these people and others to serve this community. We will be working with a number of these partner agencies to assist the current residents at Cameliers Guesthouse to get the accommodation and support that they need.

For more information or interviews contact Alison Hilton on 0423 895 978